Once a customer has received a light blue bin, they must stop using their old darker blue ones, which the city will pick up.
City recycling and organic waste cans are seen on a San Diego street on July 14, 2025. The city is delivering new, lighter blue recycling bins beginning Wednesday and will pick up the old darker blue ones.
San Diego is making two big moves on its new trash program this week: launching citywide delivery of new light blue recycling bins and issuing final warning notices to 850 property owners still receiving city service illegally.The light blue recycling bins will be delivered neighborhood by neighborhood starting Wednesday and continuing through early fall. There is a new slot to write addresses on the bins to prevent them from accidentally getting switched. The final warning notices the city is issuing tell the 850 property owners, who had received city service before an analysis determined they were ineligible, that they must secure a private hauler or face escalating fines. More than 95% of the 17,246 properties deemed ineligible have transitioned to private haulers, and the city met its goal of having 90% transition by the end of last month. But city officials say it’s time to move toward fines to prompt compliance from the holdout property owners. Fines start at $200 every two weeks and rise incrementally to $1,000 every two weeks. A spokesperson for the contracted city haulers said Tuesday that the city and the haulers have done everything they can to help these property owners get new trash service at a reasonable price. That has included softening city recycling policies to encourage haulers to offer service to multifamily properties, where recycling rates tend to be lower than single-family homes. “They’re deadbeats, and they need to pay,” said Jim Madaffer, executive director of the San Diego County Disposal Association. “It’s about compliance — they need to comply with the law.” While city officials have previously expressed health and safety concerns about stopping service to those properties, they said Tuesday that such action could happen as a last resort. “Following rounds of escalating citations and fines, the Environmental Services Department anticipates a minimal number of customers still needing to transition and may proceed to remove city containers for those customers,” city spokesperson Kelly Terry said by email. The light blue bins replace darker blue bins the city has used for recycling for many years. Once a customer has received a light blue bin they must stop using their dark blue bins, which the city will pick up.last year when the city decided to pay $41.5 million for 750,000 gray and light blue containers, along with another $23.2 million to have the new containers delivered and 950,000 old containers taken away and recycled.City officials contend the new cans will boost dependability, reliability and accountability because they are equipped with special tracking chips and look different than the old cans so crews can recognize them. They said the shift was necessary as the city transitions from providing trash and recycling services for free to charging property owners for those services.On the environmental concerns, city officials also say they will recycle the old containers, many of which are in good shape because they are only a few years old. Rehrig Pacific Company, a city contractor, will keep recycling old bins into plastic regrind for use in making new bins or other products, such as pallets, composite railroad ties and conduit fittings, the city said. Deliveries will be based on the collection route and service day, so a customer may see a neighbor across the street get a new bin before they do, the city said. The delivery of blue bins comes as the distribution of new gray trash bins nears completion. Since the process began last October, the city has delivered 231,178 gray bins to 215,610 customers and removed 257,508 old black bins — making the process 96% complete. The ballot measure sponsored by local business leaders — the Lincoln Club Business League — seems likely to appear on the ballot because they plan to rely on the much lower threshold required under state law for measures repealing taxes and fees. They must collect just over 21,000 valid signatures by early August — about one-quarter of the 82,000 signatures required to place most other city measures on the ballot. If a simple majority of city voters approve the measure, it would cancel the fee only from July 2027 through June 2029 and worsen the city’s already bleak budget picture by reducing revenue by nearly $100 million a year. The light blue bins are being distributed to property owners partly to allow the city to shift from once-a-week collection of blue recycling bins to twice-a-week collection of those bins on July 1, 2027. But if the city must stop charging for trash and recycling services on that date — which the ballot measure would require — then the city may not switch to twice a week.Hiker found dead after being reported missing on El Cajon Mountain east of LakesideThree San Diego warships carrying 2,500 Camp Pendleton Marines en route to Middle EastDel Mar residents once again fighting a bluff-top fence near train tracksOpinion: A gastroenterologist’s advice on how to prevent colorectal cancerA little-known tax break saves San Diego owners of historic homes tens of millions. The benefits aren’t equally shared. A little-known tax break saves San Diego owners of historic homes tens of millions. The benefits aren’t equally shared.
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